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Wall Street heads into the July 4th weekend on a record — and a warning

The Dow closed at an all-time high just as a limp June jobs report and a tech wobble gave traders plenty to chew on over the three-day break.

4 min read · Quant Terminal · Market wrap · Jul 3, 2026

The New York Stock Exchange facade draped with American flags ahead of the July 4th holiday

The NYSE and Nasdaq are dark Friday, July 3 — the observed Independence Day holiday.

Markets are dark today. The NYSE and Nasdaq are closed Friday, July 3, in honor of the 4th of July, and SIFMA recommended bond markets close too — Independence Day falls on a Saturday this year, so the holiday is observed the previous Friday. It's a big one: Saturday marks the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Markets reopen for normal trading on Monday, July 6.

Thursday was a tale of two markets

The Dow rose 1.14% to 52,900.07, with 24 of its 30 components gaining — enough to offset drops in Caterpillar (−3.20%) and UnitedHealth (−0.64%). The S&P 500 finished flat as tech declines erased gains in the eight advancing sectors, while the Nasdaq-100 fell 1.61%, down as much as 2% intraday. That capped a rocky start to the third quarter: a tech relief rally lifted shares Monday and Tuesday before declines ended the abbreviated week — a week that followed the best quarter for U.S. indexes since 2020. The rally is narrow, though: almost all of the Nasdaq-100's first-half 2026 gains came from just 10 stocks.

Index moves on Thursday, July 2 — the last full session before the holiday. Source: TheStreet.

The jobs number is the story of the week

The U.S. economy added just 57,000 jobs in June — a worrying sign for labor-market stability, with wage growth tracking below inflation for a third consecutive month. Rate traders liked the softness: the Nasdaq opened higher as the weak June jobs report cooled Fed rate-hike expectations. When markets reopen Monday, focus shifts to labor data, Fed minutes, services activity, and whether the AI trade can stabilize after this week's semiconductor-led wobble.

Overseas, the AI jitters faded fast

Stocks rose Friday as the latest round of AI-trade jitters subsided, with Europe's benchmark adding to an all-time high, and Nasdaq-100 futures rebounded 1.1% in holiday trading while SK Hynix and Samsung helped drive a 2% rally in Asian shares. The dollar touched a two-week low while gold extended gains — bullion sat near $4,079 an ounce as of Thursday. Bitcoin traded around $61,900, up 0.7%, with Ethereum at $1,732, up 4.3%.

One more thing for the holiday weekend: the Treasury Department launches "Trump Accounts" this Saturday, July 4, with funds invested partly in State Street's SPDR ETFs; the accounts will be created for American children born between 2025 and 2028. Elsewhere, Adani Group secured $15 billion in capital this week as its U.S. legal clouds cleared, and CVC plans €1.2 billion of high-yield bonds to fund its Irca buyout.

The desk's take: Holiday tape is thin tape. With U.S. equities dark Friday and half-staffed desks either side of the long weekend, moves get exaggerated on low volume — a poor environment to force trades into. Crypto never closes for the holiday: Bitcoin sat near $61,900 and Ethereum near $1,732 as U.S. markets wound down. When conviction is low and liquidity is thinner than usual, the disciplined default is the one our engine already runs — no trade until the edge is clear.

Sources

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Quant Terminal is research and educational software — not financial advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Market data is aggregated from the third-party sources linked above and may contain errors; verify independently before acting. Crypto is extremely volatile and you can lose your entire investment.